Moving to a new town, help needed

[wheresthevalium]

Basically I don't know where to begin.

I need to find a house to rent, a primary school, possibly childcare and a job.

I am fairly sure that we will be moving in August (not sure what date yet) due to DPs job. Obviously rightmove etc for houses, but where do I start with the rest of it?

Please help, this seems very big and scary at the moment

I would start by going to the area for a weekend or couple of days midweek, have a drive around and get to know the town a bit.

Make a note of the areas you like and could happily live in bearing in mind proximity to shops, schools, nurseries, public transport or whatever is important to you.

Go to letting agents/estate agents and find out whats available and how quickly properties get snapped up.

Also buy the local paper and when tyo return home check the local papers website regularly to get an idea about the town, what goes on there, events etc

Good luck

Oh, you could also start a thread on here asking if anyone lives in or near that town as they could give you first hand advice -straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.

Put things in order of priority.

House first. Make sure you don't compromise on area, as you'll feel very bereft and isolated at first and will need facilities and things to do before you make friends (which will happen).

School next, and state schools are largely dependent on area and generally won't enrol children until they have a firm address.

Childcare and job probably go together. If you can possibly manage it financially, hold on the job/childcare until you have moved in and settled your child(ren) into school and your husband into his new job. They will require a lot of love and attention at a time of so much change.

Up my street , local LEA , Childcarelink, local library, the town may even have its own site

Thanks guys that's a great help

We are saving some money at the moment so that I don't have to dive into a new job as soon as my feet hit the new doormat, so that should be ok.

I have lived in the same city all my life, so this is a bit of a culture shock for me! It all feels very grown up and TBH a bit much for me to do alone. I will ask DP to help me, and I'm sure he will, but as my DDs aren't his, essentially it's up to me to choose schools etc [overwhelmed sigh]